Class Actions Seek To Expand Law Of Privacy Breaches

Written with the assistance of Jessica Earle, student-at-law.

Two recently certified class action lawsuits could expand the scope of the fledgling Ontario tort of "intrusion upon seclusion"—the privacy tort first recognized by the Court of Appeal in 2012.

The two cases—Evans v. The Bank of Nova Scotia¹and Condon v. Canada²—are notable for being, respectively, the first class action to be certified in Ontario based on the tort of "intrusion upon seclusion" and the largest class action involving a digital privacy breach in Canada. Both cases seek to extend the reach of the privacy tort by claiming that institutions are liable when their actions either directly or indirectly compromise the personal information of their clients.